The hair samples collected from the rape and murder spot at Shopian have not matched with those of either the victims or the four police officers accused of the crime.

The hair samples collected from the rape and murder spot at Shopian have not matched with those of either the victims or the four police officers accused of the crime.

The police officers, including former Shopian Superintendent of Police, Javed Mattoo, were arrested on the orders of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on July 15 for allegedly destroying evidence.

A police official told HT over the phone on condition of anonymity that earlier blood samples collected at the spot were found to be fudged at the Forensic Science Laboratory of the CBI.

On May 29 late afternoon, Nelofar Jan, 22, and her sister-in-law Asiya, 17, went missing at Shopian town, about 50 km south of capital Srinagar. Early next day, their bodies were found in a stream. Both had been found to be gang-raped and murdered.

The incident created a huge public outcry, especially after a witness’s deposition before a judicial commission, headed by Justice (retired) Muzaffar Jan, that he heard shrieks of the women from a police vehicle.

A special task force, headed by Kashmir IG, Farooq Ahmad, started investigations and lifted hair and other samples from all the police vehicles that were in the area on May 30.

The case will come up for hearing in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on Wednesday. Earlier, the court deferred the case, as the Kashmir Bar Association contested the government’s move to hand over the case to the CBI.